Annalisa Grant
AnnaLisa is the youngest of four children and the only daughter, born and raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. After graduating high school, she moved to Charlotte, NC with her parents. This turned out to be a blessing since it was just a few short years later that she met her husband in the Film Actor’s Studio of Charlotte. As she studied acting at the Studio, AnnaLisa was in several films and made-for-TV movies, as well as performed in local theater in both dramatic and musical roles. At one time, it was AnnaLisa’s dream to be a professional singer.
AnnaLisa completed her undergraduate degree in Human Services at Wingate University and her Master’s degree in Counseling from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. During her thirteen years in the Human Services field, AnnaLisa worked with children in group homes and foster care, and spent two years in private practice counseling individuals, families, and couples.
When her father was in a near fatal car accident in 2010, AnnaLisa’s best coping skill turned out to be writing. Five months after the accident, when all the what ifs would not go away, AnnaLisa started writing Layla Weston’s story in The Lake. She had no idea what she was going to do with the story. In fact, she wrote sixty-four pages before she told her husband what she was doing. By then it was clear that Layla had a long story to tell and there were multiple books on the horizon.
Oxblood, the first installment of the Victoria Asher Series, published late 2016 and has been optioned for film/TV.
AnnaLisa just completed a stand alone adult crime thriller entitled, Checkmate. Based on a true story, the film/TV rights have already been sold.
In 2013, after three YA novels in The Lake Series were written, AnnaLisa took matters into her own hands and self-published the titles within just a few months of each other. Well received by readers young and not-so-young alike, The Lake Series has enjoyed breakout success, selling close to half-million copies the first year.